All Godai (Five Elements)

The godai are the five elements of Japanese esoteric Buddhist cosmology: chi (earth), sui (water), ka (fire), fu (wind) and ku (void, aether or space). The scheme descends from the Indian mahabhuta, the great elements, by way of Shingon and other esoteric schools, and it orders both the material world and the levels of a contemplative ascent from the solid to the empty.

The five are expressed visually in the gorinto, the five-ringed stone stupa (a cube, sphere, pyramid, crescent and jewel stacked from earth at the base to void at the top), a form seen throughout Japanese temples and graveyards.

The godai differ from the Chinese wu xing: they are the Indian five elements filtered through Buddhism, culminating not in a fifth material phase but in ku, the void or space that contains and transcends the other four, reflecting the Buddhist emphasis on emptiness. The scheme informs Japanese art, martial and meditative traditions, and funerary practice.

The atlas gives each of the godai its nature, its form in the gorinto, and its place in the ascent. They connect the Indian element scheme with the East Asian Buddhist material under Eastern Systems.